First Open House!
Today was our first open house, a meeting to give an understanding of what massage is, describe our training program, and answer any questions.
Around 30 student candidates showed up, 7 of them were females. Surprisingly, people arrived on time, at 1:30; we were to start at 2 pm.
This is significant because Nepali’s tend to be more laxidiscal about time—latecomers. It’s called ‘Nepali time.’ Maybe that’s why I’m always late, because it’s in my DNA!?
Anyway, the meeting was held in a small room on the rooftop. Rob and I were talking and looking at the rooftops from the 4th floor of the DWO building when I noticed two guys, surrounded by children, coming down the lane. They were both carrying walking sticks and I said, “Hey, there’s Sunil and his other friend.’
Sunil is blind. He heard our interview in November is extremely enthusiastic about enrolling in the school. His friend, Narayan, is also interested. They walked all the way across town, from Boudhha (which is where the school is) to Tripureswor. For those of you know Kathmandu, you know the distance. For those of you who are not, it’s like walking from Los Feliz to Downtown L.A…
Anyway, these neighborhood children, about 5 of them, led them to the door.
After we realized the room on the roof was too small, (we couldn’t do it out in the sun because it would’ve been too hot, and too bright, since the building is white), we moved down to the ground floor.
Once we got settled, and there was a little confusion between us and them (DWO staff). I told them earlier in the week, how Rob and I would conduct the orientation. I guess they forgot the circle part of it. They were really organized and handed out the itinerary. Once we moved downstairs, and DWO was telling me it would be a classroom-style meeting, with us in the front, Rob went ahead and gave a brief intro and he started to talk about his background, along with some of the DWO staff. I jumped after a student introduced himself.
My vision was to have everyone sitting in a circle, a safety circle, is what I called it. So again, we all got up, formed a circle as best we could, and I had everyone hold hands, and close their eyes, and breathe deep for a couple of seconds. Once everyone was centered, then we started to give the rest of our introductions, with each person in the room introducing themselves.
We had to conform to the boxy lay-out of room we were in, since there were about 40 people, we were tucked in corners meaning that if you sat in one part of the room you couldn’t see the rest and vice versa, but it got the message across: comfort, equality and grounded.
Of course, while I am writing this, I remember that is what I wanted to say, grounded, but something happens when I speak to Nepali’s, I have to speak slowly and make sure my English will make sense to them. But they got the idea.
After everyone introduced themselves (remember, I’m also filming this for Beth, as best as I can), Santosh, gave an overview of what we would discuss during the meeting. At least that’s what I think he was saying since he spoke in Nepali, which is not my mother tongue.
I talked about the importance of the spa industry, because our training is focused on that, training people to work in spas. It’s the way we have to market our students in order to get them jobs abroad. And I didn’t mention ‘massage’ until I explained that that it’s a billion dollar industry world wide because people recognize the benefits of going to a spa. I said that massage is the major attraction of a spa, and talked about some of the proven benefits: reduced muscle tension, increase in blood flow, which allows the body to detoxify (which is why it’s MUCHO IMPORTANTE to drink water the rest of the day after getting any treatment).
I thought the meeting would be conducted in English, because then we could gauge how good it is. But after my first speech regarding spa and massage industry, Rob translated it in Nepali. After that, the audience spoke in their mother tongue. This is only fair.
At first, during the Q & A session, DWO staff had a lot of questions and clarifications, I thought to myself, “are they interested in the training?” But once the conversation got going, other candidates started to get more engaged.
We invited this woman we met last week, Niru. We went to her to see if she could recommend people to us. She a very cool Nepali woman, she is a nurse and a massage therapist. She studied in Thai, Singapore and India. She opened her own day spa in Jwalakhel, where she offers beauty treatments and Thai massage.
I invited her because she gives credibility to our school, a Nepali woman that can explain in Nepali, what she does. She took the initiative and answered many of the questions. She spoke about massage therapy being a legitimate occupation (if you want it to be), said that this should be a passion and not simply looking to get overseas. She was really good.
Though Rob and I made our own itinerary, with who was going to talk about what, I think it was good to just let the Open House/Orientation take on a life of it’s own thought the Q & A’s(after Rob went over the curriculum and schedule). Niru was able to convey that massage is a calling, and not fit for everyone, and how one needs to be passionate. She talked about how massage is beneficial not just for the client but for your self. She said the yoga, mediation and Reiki were beneficial because you learn how to take care of yourself.
She worked it, man! I was so happy that she came. She also brought two people, one she trained in Thai massage (Manish), the other works in her beauty salon, and she thinks they would be good people to train.
After that, I had everyone pair up, and I taught a mini hand massage. This is to break down the barriers of touch, to see who is comfortable, how well they respond to learning, and to give them an idea of what massage is and how it can be healing.
During the hand massage interaction, I had everyone close their eyes before I showed them how to massage their neighbor’s hands, and do another mini mediation. So for a couple of minutes, the room was so still…and the energy, wow, it was really thick and strong. It was so gripping. People really were able to ‘go there.’ I looked around the room, and was really amazed at their energy.
So I started telling them to apply a little pressure at first…as I demonstrated on Manish, (he came with Niru). I went around the room making sure they were applying good pressure. I asked Rob to translate, and he would forget to because he was so engaged in giving Santosh a hand massage.
The thing about getting a massage here, and (I have not been to any of the hotels yet) is that the massages are in my experience, weak. So when I saw someone using their thumbs on their partner’s palms, and not applying pressure, I went over to make sure to that the receiver’s arm was resting and that they weren’t just caressing the palms with their thumbs, but actually, doing some good ole muscle manipulations.
People really enjoyed the demonstration, especially the DWO staff, who we have been working with for the past six months, and have been talking about healing and massaging, but they had no idea what it was. They really liked it and everyone had a lot of fun with it.
I had them switch, and some people (who were giving the massage) were complaining that the new givers weren’t doing it right.
The girls sitting next to each other worked on each other. There were two people of different genders who were reluctant to work on one another. So the two remaining women left, worked on each other and I had Niru partner up with a male candidate (who was very engaged throughout the whole program).
The DWO Didi (elder sister, she is the personal chef for the office) looked through the window and Anup suggested she join in as well. So I motioned for her to come in, and I had Rob work on her. And then another one of their co-workers was looking in as well, curious, so I beckoned him in and I briefly worked on his hands.
My poor volunteer Manish, who I demonstrated on, didn’t get the Sharmila treatment, as I had to supervise the others. So since Rob was working on Didi, Santosh worked on Manish, and I worked on a DWO volunteer/worker. Again, I couldn’t work on him either for long because I saw two males, who weren’t engaged and giving a heartless massage to his partner.
So I announced that the hands weren’t the only tool you use when you give a massage, you also use (as I patted my chest) your heart. And everyone understood what I was talking about.
Overall it went well….though at first I was trying to film the candidates asking questions, and then I just had to turn it off because I wanted to be more present with our candidates.
I feel like maybe 5 or 6 people would be qualified: English speaking skills and passion. I really couldn’t gauge because I was so busy filming, talking or demonstrating. Everyone responded well to my instruction…I would show how to massage on the receiver, and then I would demonstrate on the giver so they can understand.
Rob and I are really happy with the way the meeting went. DWO really like it as well, because it was so engaging. Rob’s friend, Chakra, who was his Nepali language tutor in the Peace Corps, also thought it went well.
Chakra is from the Dalit community, and organized a lot of the Peace Corps training for the new volunteers. He offered to guide us with what materials to provide during training, how to do periodic evaluations of our students and of our training. And he’s also really interested in learning massage as well.
Overall, I think it was a really good step in the right direction, as everything so far has. We got our message across: legitimacy of massage, the therapeutic values and the passion needed for this industry. These were our major goals, besides explaining the curriculum and our loan program.
Tags: Himalayan Healers, Kathmandu Work, massage school, thai massage
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